Hello. I was given a 17" GE remote set with the AC chassis recently. It plays quite well, with a very bright and vivid picture, just that its so, so sensitive to mains-fluctuations. For example, if I were to switch on my celing fan or air conditoner, the pic would momentarily squeeze inwards and then bloom considerably. I would just swap out the filter caps ordinarily, but I wanted to pick your brains and find out if there was somewhere in particular I should start with first. Pressed for time lately. :thumbsdn:

Anyways, the set was built in Portsmouth, VA in April of 1982. I'm kind of surprised at the quality picture this GE puts out. In the past, I've noticed GE sets were typically sort of washed-out or hazy. Maybe I've just been accustomed to sets which needed some kind of repairs. But this TV is quite the champion. Plus its got IR remote, which makes it easier to use with my digital boxes.

First, I'd check the B+ to make sure it's running within spec. Then, I'd look into the voltage regulator circuit for trouble. You might want to change the electrolytic caps in the power supply. I've seen these chassis in the 10" "portacolor III's"; but, I've never had to do any in depth troubleshooting on one. I did have one of those 17AC chassis sets with a mechanical tuner and mine had a very bright, sharp picture (unlike most GE's).

You may not be able to completely eliminate the problem; but, I think the problem can be minimized.

Thanks for the quick tips! Yeah, I don't know what they did here but this set has a smokin' picture. The tube code is 188-23, classic GE.

Tomorrow I'll get a chance to dismantle the set and check this out. I'm probably going to start by doing a 'shotgun' replacement of the lytics in the power supply.

Isn't that a large neck inline tube that uses the convergence coil assembly with two knobs on top of the assembly?

While you're in there, look for any bad soldering. GE was famous for that at one time.

I believe the AC chassis was the last true GE chassis to be used in a 10", 13", or 17" set. Somewhere around '83 or '84, GE started outsourcing the chassis from Matsushita and, later, GoldStar. Those Matsushita flybacks are always bad in those GE branded sets.

If you ever find a PC (19" and 25") chassis GE from around '86 or '87, you might want to grab it. I'm pretty sure the PC was the LAST true GE chassis before GE sold out it's consumer electronics line.

That's the one...it has the knobs on top of the tube for convergence.

Its definitely a GE chassis.

I took radiotvnuts advice and resoldered a whole bunch of module-plugin-connectors. It actually helped a little bit. As it stands, i haven't replaced any parts yet. Thats next.

consumer reports gave those sets high marks as for as picture quality ranking above the rest of the manufactures. i worked on a ton of those and they had a hell of a pictue on them. they will lose the flyback over time replaced a ton of them part ep77x? it seemed the harder you run one of those the longer the crt lasted. it is a keeper. steve

Really? I wonder how driving it hard would make it last longer? Sort of reminds me of the instant-on TVs. IIRC, alot of members here felt that they lasted if instant-on was maintained, but die off once they are unplugged.

Guess that the cathodes need a strong input to keep working in this tube.

One thing is for sure, and i don't know how to explain it: For a 17" set, the whine of the horizontal oscillator circuitry is exceptionally loud. I can hear the high pitched whine of this set outside in my yard. Even my 35" Trinitron (1999 model) doesn't sound as loud. Not that its a big deal, just interesting to note.

This TV has a copy of the tuner block diagram and schematics for the entire chassis in a folded-up little manual which is kept in the back cover of the set and is only accessible from the inside.

The manual's instructions for setting greyscale are a bit whacky..... I'm accustomed to just using a dark scene to set background levels and then snow to set the drive levels.

On this set, it instructs the serviceman to short two posts on the video output board and set only two of the three background levels. Meanwhile, its got adjustments for all three.

I re-set the convergence before. The knobs on the crt neck (which radiotvnut pointed out) are very helpful in getting it right. There are clearly marked knobs for vertical and horizontal convergence for each color. As given, the set looked OK but I purposely threw off all the converging knobs so that I was forced to get it 100% correct. It looks even nicer now.

Thanks for the tips so far, and by all means keep em coming! :thmbsp:

Was watching an 80s marathon. Heres some pics.

I seem to remember GE having a problem with squealing flybacks even in the old tube type chassis. I guess they still had the same flyback squealing problem by the early '80's. Of course, your set was not made too many years after GE discontinued tube-chassis sets. Some say that GE made the 10" tube portacolor as late as 1980. At any rate, I think GE was one of the last US manufacturers to build a tube chassis TV.

You're lucky that the service manual was still in the back. Those are almost always missing, especially if the set has been to a repair shop.

I wouldn't be surprised if GE put the same flybacks in the AA-chassis sets and tube sets. Also, I recall GE made a lot of stuff for other companies, like arcade monitor chassis and stuff like that. Once saw an 80s GE chassis in an Invaders game from that time. What happened was I went into an old tv repair shop asking if they had equipment or old parts for sale, and saw the machine since they were working on it. The guy told me that GE made a ton of parts and even whole chassis for arcade games back then. They were (are) HUGE, in every field it seems.

About the service manual... I don't think this sets been in a repair shop, but I can't be sure. For one, I usually see one of about five stickers that the repair shops around here leave on the back of sets, and this has none.

Its funny how the little manual has a warning about the shop returning the literature back to the customer, and like you say, they rarely did.

I know GE made some TV's for Western Auto (Truetone) and JC Penny. You can look at the sets and they scream GE. They just have a different name plastered on them. I'm sure they are harder to find than the actual GE branded sets.

I was just thinking about the AA/AB/AC chassis line and how they were used in 10", 13", and 17" sets. I've had examples of all three. For some reason, the 17" version produced a far superior picture to the smaller screen versions. Really, the picture on the 10" version looked almost like a tube portacolor.

I think the trouble with the 10" version is it has the same phosphor 'dot' size as the bigger screens, so it is really course on such a small screen. They are some tough sets. GE, of course, was (is) all about value-how cheap can we make this widget and still have it work okay? It took them awhile to make a really good color tv that way. I grew up around lots of GE sets and the flyback whine was really common (I never paid it any mind, just figuring that all sets must do it, until I started dragging home other makes) and the voltage flucuation issue sounds kinda familiar, too.

I have an elderly neighbor with a 19" GE from the 80s-push button tuning, remote I think. That set is in a back room and probably hasn't been on in years. Though I don't have the room, I should make an attempt at saving it, before it gets tossed.

Yep, i'd save that set Brian. I feel like these will be rare one day. The 80s sets aren't a big appeal to most any collector, yet they are great sets. They usually just get dismissed as 'old' and are thrown out.

From what i've read, the General built em cheap yet they last forever. Good philosophy when you think about it.

I have a '66 portacolor with the 11sp22 crt which looks darn awful. Colors are vibrant and nice, but man those phosphors are terribly coarse! Again, it works and its color, but the resolution is real bad! And the chassis tubes look to be all original, 40-plus years later!

Yes, '80's sets are generally overlooked now; but, wait another 10 years. Look at sets from the '50's through the '70's. Ten years ago, most collectors wouldn't give them a second look. Now, look what's happening with sets of that vintage.

I need to get busy and try to locate one of those tube portacolor's. Back in the '90's, they were real common finds. I don't think I've had one since about '97. The one that I'm really kicking my butt over was the November, '76 model that I sold for probably $15-$20 working. Back in the '90's, TV's were just something for me to fix and sell to fund my antique radio habit. I really didn't have an interest in collecting them nor did I see the future collector interest in them. Now that I'm older and have developed an interest in TV collecting, those once common sets are not as common anymore.

Would it be alright to up the filter caps' value a bit? Feel like it would help with the line-fluctuation issue. In the past, I've doubled the PS capacitance of audio amps with good results.

I don't think it would hurt to go up on the values a little. I probably wouldn't go over 25%. Of course, you can always go up on the working voltage.

The easiest time to find old TV sets is when they are still considered usable. Right now there is basically nobody (besides us) using tube/hybrid tv sets on a daily basis. If they were using one it would have to, at some point, have a repair, and who would fix it? Most repair shops would refuse it. Because Portacolors were in production so late, and were reasonably durable, a few still come out of the woodwork. I bought one about 3 years ago at a flea market where it was being used to demonstrate video games. The digital switchover is really going to change that market, of course. I am curious to see what the used electronics vendors at the flea market will be doing come spring.

I don't aspire to own much of anything from the 80s right now...but someday I know I'll wish I saved more.

I was thinking and the only older TV that I know of in daily use by a non-collector is an early to mid '70's Zenith console. I've never actually seen it; but, the people that own it have a 32 year old daughter and they said they bought it before she was born. I know their daughter and she confirmed that it's an old Zenith console with knobs. They said that it's only been serviced once in it's life. I remind them all the time that I want it when it dies. They are shocked and can't imagine WHY I would want such an old set. There's a chance this set uses the horizontal solid state chromacolor chassis. If that's the case, I may have a long wait because those things never die.

I've got both an AA (10", 1977) and an AC (13", 1983) chassis. The AA has a wonderful picture in spite of the coarseness of the picture tube, and from 6 feet away it doesn't look all that bad. It's been around as long as I can remember - it was my grandparents' kitchen TV and then it rattled around my parents' house for quite some time. It got back to me after it quit working as Dad's barn TV. Took a lot of cleaning, a fuse, and a damper diode to get it presentable again, and I'm still chasing bad solder joints here and there.

The AC was a $3 thrift-store purchase in hopes of nabbing the damper diode for the AA, so I can't vouch for its picture other than 'the screen lights up'. When I get around to putting a Mouser order together for some other projects (including the dead Admiral in my living room), I'll splurge and get both of them a fresh diode.

Have the same problem as the OP mentioned; on a white screen I can see a very slight hum bar, and when the air kicks on, the picture sucks in for a second or so. Guess I'll have to change the cap out someday. The service information in the compartment on the back is a great thing; it's nice to be able to open one up and have all the vitals at your fingertips.

-Jim

Yes it is. All sets should include a manual this way (imagine!)

I haven't changed any caps yet but last time I was in there I re-did convergence and greyscale and its truly a nice TV.